


Unfit

by Fuguestate



Category: Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Watchmen Kinkmeme, When Eddie Blake can criticize your parents they have really fucked up, kinkmeme prompt, poor parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-27
Updated: 2011-01-27
Packaged: 2018-01-13 13:50:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1228795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fuguestate/pseuds/Fuguestate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes it's not just criminals vigilantes have to deal with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unfit

I.  
All right, kid, listen. I can tell you don't belong here – yer too clean, too slow, an' too scared. Yeah, shut up, I said scared. What are you, ten? Ooh, _eleven_ , 'scuse me. Where d'you live? Jesus tittyfucking Christ, are you kiddin' me? What the hell are you doin' here? Oh, you're with this joker, huh? Shoulda figured.

Where're yer parents, kid? Hey, I didn't ask if they cared where you are, I asked _where_ _they_ are. So, what, they just let you out to go wherever? Fuck me...

All right. Yer gonna take this and yer gonna take the first cab that comes and go home. _Straight_ home. Yeah, like that, you think someone's gonna buy you a new goddamn shirt? And yer gonna walk in the front door when you get there so yer folks can see you real good. Maybe teach 'em to pay more attention. And so help me, kid, if I ever see you out here again, I'll give you a cracked skull to match his.

Now get the fuck home.

.

II.  
"Muh... Mo-" A girl's voice blubbed under water amidst the splashing and shouts of the pool.

"Not now, Jessica."

"Auh! Muh!"

A book with only a few unread pages was slapped down. "Oh, _honestly_ , can't you see I'm –"

Whatever the woman was about to say was cut off when a figure darted past her lounge chair and jumped into the pool toward her daughter's splashes. As shocked swimmers looked on, a severe-looking woman in a dark swimsuit surfaced with the shaking girl, who was coughing up water. Blinking and gasping, the girl looked up at her rescuer and began to succumb to frightened tears.

Gently the dark-haired woman held the sobbing girl to her, before leveling a murderous glare on the shocked mother. "You stupid cow," she spat, advancing up the pool steps past the dazed onlookers like some vengeful warrior queen. The girl's mother wilted as she loomed over her. "You nearly killed your daughter!"

Only when the mother's tears began as well did the woman hand her daughter back.

.

III.  
"I dunno, Adrian – I think that might be pushing it, even for a cartoon."

"Really? Is the fire too much, do you think, or is it the mummies chasing after them?"

"No, no – it's the part where the boy gets trapped. I mean, what parent would let their kid get into danger like that, especially with something like reanimated mummies running around?"

"But that was how I was going to have Rorschach perform his big rescue - we're focusing on his character in this episode."

"Well, it could be the whole family getting trapped and he could rescue them all, couldn't he?"

"Hm. He could, even though it dilutes the appeal toward children I was trying to foster."

"C'mon, Adrian. We're pushing it by having cartoons of ourselves as it is."

"You're right. I was being lazy. It's distressingly easy to do with cartoons, I'm finding. We'll keep working on it."

 

.

IV.  
Laurie had no idea exactly what made her look up. A shadow, a vague sound... something set off her inner alarm bells, and she cast her senses outward for danger.

As she glanced around, her eyes finally detected the movement above her she'd sensed, barely visible as a silhouette in front of a few lit windows. At first she thought it was a cat wandering out on the fire escape and was about to berate herself for being paranoid, but then she realized that no cat would move so awkwardly. Even with the evidence right in front of her it took her an additional half-second to realize what she was seeing was a _baby_ \- maybe two years old, making her (his?) way along a fourth-story fire escape. 

She probably made the climb in a matter of seconds, but clambering to the first balcony felt like it took a year and each successive level was its own eternity. She navigated the whole way almost entirely by feel as her vision remained fixed on the toddler – a girl, she finally saw – teetering first one way and then the other as she explored. Part of Laurie wanted to call out to the child to keep her still, but she feared scaring the baby or, worse, attracting her to the opening in the stairs before Laurie could get to her.

At the last stairwell the baby looked down and, miracle of miracles, smiled and sat down. Shaking with adrenaline Laurie scooped her up close. One window was open, and there was no screen. A speaker lying on its side underneath showed how the little girl made her way out, and a look inside let Laurie know how she'd been able to do it unnoticed. 

A television was on – some sitcom or other blaring canned laughter – and a man was slouched in a chair watching and munching on chips. Nearby a woman was on the phone with her back to them all, talking a mile a minute. Rage took over for adrenalin, and she congratulated herself on controlling it into three sharp raps at the window.

Rather than wait for the parents' sputtering to coalesce into words, Laurie handed the little girl carefully to them and strode into their apartment. Her bootheel caused an impressive shower of sparks as it went through the television screen, and the plastic telephone crunched into an admirably compact pile while making a satisfying dent in the wall. A single glance was enough to quell the flicker of outrage in the father, and she left without a word.


End file.
